Food quality and safety in international trade aspect of developing country.

Focusing on the international trade aspect of developing countries, this paper will provide a descriptive overview of the SPS and TBT Agreements. It aims to address issues related to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures/regulations and discuss on whether or not the new agro-food trading environment is favourable to developing countries. The contribution of the paper is the identifi cation of concrete steps that could be taken to move forward liberalization eff orts in which developing countries have a direct stake. After the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995, international trade with food and agricultural products left with remarkable reduction of tariff s and quantitative restrictions. The liberalization of international agro-food trade was almost simultaneously followed by world-wide integration of food-supply chains, and thus the assurance of food quality and safety has become a major concern. Although economic necessity makes it quite natural for countries to devote attention to meeting food safety standards in their export sectors; jet international regulatory measures are needed. Such measures, designed to ensure food safety, consumer protection, and plant and animal health, are regulated by two agreements annexed to the general trade accords: the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement and the amended Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. In order to ensure fair trade and market access, both agreements provide special assistance to developing countries.